High-speed digital circuits typically present serious challenges related to the design of a power supply. For example, numerous logic gates are rapidly turned on and off and short surges of current are continuously drawn from an electrically conductive layer being associated with a power supply. Voltage regulators are often unable to adequately supply current for these surges. This often results in unwanted noise being present at voltage rails that can impair the functionality of electronic circuits or even result in total failure of electronic circuits.
A known solution to the problems mentioned above is the use of a bypass capacitor, which acts like a small, low-impedance power supply for all the short surges of current, in particular switching current being associated with switching a digital electronic component. Therefore, many component carriers need a plurality of bypass capacitors, which are strategically placed on or within the component carrier. In this respect, the most important parameter of an appropriate bypass capacitor is its ability to supply a current instantaneously when such a current is needed.
Bypass capacitors are typically realized by means of discrete electronic components. However, such discrete bypass capacitors regularly exhibit an internal parasitic inductance which limits their ability to rapidly supply an appropriate amount of current. This has a negative impact on the propagation and/or advancement of high frequency signals such as e.g. signals having fast clock rate.
A common method for forming (bypass) capacitances on or within a component carrier is to place a thin layer of FR-4 material between two conductive layers. For instance a commonly used FR-4 core between copper conductive layers comprises a capacitance of about 50 pF per square inch.
There may be a need for proving a component carrier with a bypass capacitor having an large capacitance.